Out of the silence: A study of the epistemology of adolescent girls.

摘要

This research study investigated the question: What is the nature and ground of knowledge and knowing as experienced and described by adolescent girls? This study looked at the individual and collective reflections of adolescent girls on their ways of learning and knowing. The focus of this study was not on gender differences, but on epistemology as described by adolescent girls, relating to theory in epistemology as it informs theory in adolescent development, theory in women's development and pedagogy related to educational theory and practice. This project was a qualitative study using interview and focus group methodology to gather data from 17- and 18-year-old girls who were seniors in high school. The research was conducted in one Quaker school, as a case study environment, given the assumption that Quaker schools have a culture that values the process of reflection and self-expression as ways of knowing. The collective voice in this study gives evidence of adolescent epistemology as a dialogic process with self and others, facilitated within the context of caring teacher-student relationships and a ground of tangible life experience in the world of relationships with others. This epistemology is an essential part of the fabric of adolescent identity development and although it may not be unique to girls, it is clearly articulated by the girls in this study. This study, then, contributes to constructing a feminist epistemology in that it validates what girls say about their ways of learning and knowing. In addition to contributing to feminist epistemology, the results of this study are broadly applicable to an understanding of human development by contributing to an understanding of the development of the adolescent mind and consciousness, as well as to pedagogy and education in praxis.